Warfare & Tactics

1) find a way to make a fair amount of isk :) That's actually just 1/2 joking. If you want to PVP to win more often than you lose then you're going to need to invest in better fittings than the other guy had.

1b) on the same token, specialize in a few ships and don't cross train too soon. It's seductive to be able to fly everything but flying everything badly is a recipe for failure. Flying a few ships well will get you far more kills in the long run.

2) Be patient and pick your fights carefully. If you just throw yourself headlong into every fight you can get then you will lose the vast majority of them. You really need to have a feeling for what's winnable and what isn't. If you don't have that feeling then there are a few ways to get it. (a) make 100 mistakes on tranquility doing crazy stuff that got you killed (b) look for solo kills on the killboards and see who is killing what with what and (c) use sisi for experimenting.

3) learn how to probe and/or work with someone who knows how to probe. Using a scout is really essential and using one that can probe for you if needed means you'll find a lot more targets to attack.

4) Did I say be patient? Oh yeah... be patient. Some days you'll find 100 targets but only 1 of them is something you can engage in the ship you're in. It never seems to fail that the days I go out in an AF, all I find are destroyers and the days I go out in a vagabond all I can find are T3 cruisers ratting. It can be frustrating but it's worth the wait for the times you find a good target.

5) if you're doing it in low-sec then try to get your sec status below -5 as quick as you can. You'll find a lot more people willing to enage you around gates that way, which makes life that much easier.

6) finally, develop a good nose for the baiting game. There's nothing more depressing than finally attacking that ship you've been stalking for an hour and 6 of his buddies land on you. Even now I still miss sniffing it out sometimes. The other day I thought I was attacking a hurricane and suddenly it turned into a hurricane, 2x zealots a proteus and 2x guardians. They were very good though, keeping the whole fleet hidden in the one place I didn't think to look.... a wormhole with an exit in the system where I was working.

T-